Bloody Bond
by Heather Giesbrecht
Summary: The first time he'd met Karen she'd been holding a copy of Crimson Peak. Bobby/Karen, Thomas/Lucille, Thomas/Edith. Complete.


_Author's Note:_ Carter Cushing's birth date was deduced from Edith's comment about his almost turning sixty. Edith's death date is entirely made up.

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 **Bloody Bond**

Bobby stared at the flames that were consuming Karen's body. He still remembered his father screaming, "We meant something once ya little brat ! Your great-grandfather Cushing was huge in Buffalo 'n your grandfather went 'n sold everything away. The goddamn bastard, fuck 'im." After he'd shot his father and fled, impulsively, he'd gone to Buffalo to the public library. He hadn't thought the claim was true with how shit the man's parenting'd been.

Yet he had scoured those genealogies for hours for Cushings. He'd found one famous Cushing - Carter Cushing, an architectural magnate, 1841 - 1901. Carter Cushing he'd found out'd had an...accident in the Buffalo gentlemen's club, though the cause of death'd only been revised to murder in 1902. The man'd been murdered by Lady Lucille Sharpe. Of course, that'd made him keep looking and he'd found Carter's daughter Edith Sharpe nee Cushing,1877 - 1930. Edith's husband, Sir Thomas Sharpe, 1868 - 1901, was by all accounts emotionally messed up with an abusive childhood and incestuous relationship with his older sister. Yet according to Edith's diary, Sir Thomas had genuinely loved her despite his originally courting her to get her money. Sir Thomas had died of three vicious stab wounds trying to save his grandmother from his jealous grandaunt at his estate in England, Allerdale Hall aka Crimson Peak. Yeah, that'd been really cheery sounding alright.

That was when he had gone looking for whatever he could find on Crimson Peak and his extended family. He'd found a copy of a book called Crimson Peak authored by one E. Sharpe. The book'd been a fictionalized account of his grandmother's time at the decaying mansion, with mentions of the three other women who'd been murdered for their fortunes. It'd proven that he wasn't the only one who, "Broke everything he touched." nearly his whole family'd been in abusive relationships or murdered somebody, even Edith'd had to kill Lucille in self-defense.

Twenty odd years later and he'd met Karen in the same library, she'd been holding a copy of Crimson Peak. She'd looked gorgeous with her blond hair all a glow in the sunlight, her nose buried in the hard covered plain black book as she gasped, "My goodness !" at some sentence or other.

He'd walked up 'n asked, "So, was it the poison or the incest ?"

Grey eyes widened in what he'd assumed was shock. "There's incest in this too ?"

In response, he'd scratched at his neck and said, "Uh, sorry 'bout ruining that fer ya. Ahem, I'm, ah, I'm Bobby Singer."

"Oh don't worry about that I already knew. Huh, I thought they would've edited it out of the book since it's a re-release and all. It's nice to meet you, I'm Karen, Karen Wallis. So, Bobby, mind telling me what interested a tough guy like you in Crimson Peak ?"

"Well, this's gonna sound like a lie, but I assure you it ain't, my grandmother was Edith Sharpe."

Karen had smiled, "That is really neat, your related to four famous people, even if one is infamous instead. You know I did an essay on your grandmother for college, she was ahead of her time. God, it's so tragic though, she found the man she loved and he was torn away from her only a few months after they got married. It doesn't excuse what she did, but I almost feel sorry for Lucille, you know ? Sure she was way more messed up than Thomas, but I think she genuinely loved him. I mean, she had a full on mental breakdown and went near suicidal because she couldn't handle the fact that she killed him."

They'd ended up going to a diner so they could keep talking - first it'd been about the book, then it'd been about everything else. It'd led to more dates, five years later, they'd gotten married. Now, three days ago, they'd had that stupid fight about his not wanting kids, she'd gone rabid and a few hours ago he'd killed her.

Rufus muttered, "C'mon, Bobby, you've gotta leave sometime much as you want to you can't watch her forever."

Just like Karen'd always done he found himself sympathizing with Lucille, just like his grandaunt he had no way to apologize. Reluctantly, he turned away and plodded toward then climbed into Rufus's truck. As he closed the passenger side door with a thud, he was exactly like Lucille bound to the past by an unbreakable bloody bond.


End file.
